Feed your moths and hide your trousers

February 24, 2021 9:34 AM

From an article in The Guardian by Hannah Marriott: There is a rip in the armpit of Orsola de Castro’s jumper. She raises her hand high in the air so I can see it: a slash of pale skin peeks from tomato-red wool. This “memory hole”, as De Castro describes it, tells the story of the jumper’s long life. It was owned by her cousin, then her daughter. “It is very old Benetton, from when Benetton was still made in Italy. You can’t see it on Zoom, but this is really nice wool,” she says, arm still aloft.

De Castro, 54, is an activist, a lecturer, a former designer and a co-founder of not-for-profit movement Fashion Revolution. With the release of her book Loved Clothes Last, she has also become a kind of anti-Marie Kondo. She advocates “radical keeping”, not decluttering. “The only antidote to throwaway culture is to keep. So I am an obsessive keeper,” she says.

“... Some people love rescuing pets. I started off rescuing clothes – and have never stopped,” she says. Her design process was initially creative, not ethically driven. A eureka moment came while she was “climbing mountains of rubbish in a warehouse” to source holey jumpers. “I thought: OK, I am not just designing – I am recuperating,” she says. “There is a purpose. It is not just aesthetic, it is also profoundly moral in many ways.”

posted by Bella Donna (14 comments total)

I'm down with radical keeping - it's just the problem that Kondo and company are trying to solve for is the overwhelming drive toward radical acquiring. (And I still wear my grandfather's wool hat and his OG Burberry car coat, so I love the message of better, longer)
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:48 AM on February 24, 2021 [9 favorites]

I slowed my consumption patterns considerably, though it was less a matter of being a more responsible consumer and more about being burned too many times by high street brands' falling standards. I still have a beloved Banana Republic coat I bought in high school and a J Crew sweater from middle school. Nothing they sell today would hold up that long. Fast fashion finally got too fast for me. After being extremely disappointed with a J Crew knit sweater (and not being too impressed with one from Everlane), I started buying vintage cashmere. It's the sort of thing I don't mention too often, because there's already a limited supply of wearable (within my limited mending skill set), pre-80s cashmere at affordable prices. I have a couple of sweatervests and a cardigan...and they are so nice compared to what I'd gotten used to from stores.

I'm guessing whatever Good Place points I get from only buying old sweaters are swamped by the demerits over polyester microshedding (???). Is there a solution for exercise gear, which you absolutely have to wash after wearing? It can't be bamboo, because apparently bamboo fabric is also terrible for the environment.
posted by grandiloquiet at 10:49 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]

This is something I enjoy, both conceptually and aesthetically. There's something pleasing about a well-mended pair of trousers or piece of knitwear, a wood table or leather chair which is worn but well-maintained, showing its long productive life in the marks it bears. Repairing things well can be an art form, kintsugi being the most obvious example.

I grew up around someone who could sew, and while I never managed the patience to make whole pieces of clothing myself am comfortable mending and altering most things. I have a pair of trousers I occasionally refer to as my 'Ship of Theseus' trousers as they've been patched and mended so many times one might theoretically question whether they are still the same piece of clothing I started off with. My darning skills aren't yet up to snuff but I have some woolen socks and other items mended by a relative where the repair is essentially indistinguishable from more than a metre away.

There's something empowering in having the knowledge and ability to repair stuff. And if you're fortunate enough to be able to acquire good quality things and maintain them well, it's almost like having familiar companions by your side throughout your life.
posted by myotahapea at 11:25 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]

Years ago, my mother in law very kindly bought me a black wool winter jacket from Eddie Bauer. I wear it every winter. For many years she would give me a new winter coat every year or two for Christmas. I've always given them away and keep wearing the coat I like. I think I've finally broken her of the habit. My coat looks a little rattier than it used to--I wouldn't wear it to a funeral--but I will likely keep wearing that coat till I die.
posted by rikschell at 11:26 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I really have to doubt the idea of feeding your moths. Maybe things are different where she is, but I didn't find it wildly difficult to get rid of moths when I have had them in the past, and feeding them seems guaranteed to keep them around.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:27 PM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]

I do wish they hadn't set her against Marie Kondo, as they're both saying the same thing: that if the things one surrounds oneself with are things that one values and cares for, it will make one's life better.
posted by Grangousier at 12:36 PM on February 24, 2021 [43 favorites]

I like that notion of "radical keeping." This article reminds me of an encounter I had a few years ago, while travelling in Iceland. I met another Canadian who was travelling to where her grandmother had been from in a remote end of Iceland. While she was travelling she wore her late grandmother's Icelandic style sweater/jumper (a lopapeysa) that she had made as a young woman in Iceland before she immigrated to Canada. Something that this woman hadn't expected was how often people would come up to her in Iceland and ask her about this sweater which to her eyes was very much like many of the lopapeysa people wear in Iceland. For this woman this sweater was her connection to her grandmother and a way to "bring her grandmother home" but because it had a specific pattern that was from a specific time and place and which now was rarely used it was a connection for the people who encountered her to connect with her and her grandmother.

I always think about that woman and her sweater when I need a reminder that as much as stuff can be a burden it can also help define and connect to us with our past and culture.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:38 PM on February 24, 2021 [17 favorites]

I didn't find it wildly difficult to get rid of moths when I have had them in the past

Please share your secrets. I have the world's sheddingest dog, one floor that is still carpeted, and a multi-year moth infestation likely brought on by the purchasing of a secondhand sweater. I love cozy woolens but have given up on them, as we've beaten back the worst of the moth infestation but never truly won the war.
posted by deludingmyself at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

Also, I love the concept of stores having "repair stations." I can't see it catching on in the fast fashion world, but it'd be an interesting model to have on the side for a thrift store, if priced correctly.
posted by deludingmyself at 12:55 PM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]

I really have to doubt the idea of feeding your moths. Maybe things are different where she is, but I didn't find it wildly difficult to get rid of moths when I have had them in the past

You are fortunate. Where I live, in Edinburgh flats, they are basically endemic. You can eradicate them at great cost, and they'll just come back from the flat next door. If somehow you manage to co-ordinate treatment of the whole building, they'll just come back from the building next door. Plus they're quite happy to eat the cat fur that ends up behind the bookcases, so cleaning them away is basically impossible for me.

I tried to give up on woolens, but I love them, so I've found a combination of an open-air clothes rail and packing the rest away in sealed boxes with anti-moth sachets is enough to keep them off the things I actually care about.

I think having a sacrificial piece that you then wash once a week to kill the larvae (don't want to actually breed them) is actually a very good idea and will be doing it.
posted by stillnocturnal at 1:01 PM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]

In more related news, I actually asked for a book on visible mending for my birthday and am teaching myself to darn. My mum gave me a lovely jumper, unfortunately full of holes, which I'm practicing on and plan to use as my house jumper. Because it's already full of repairs I won't feel bad when my cats knead it.
posted by stillnocturnal at 1:03 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

Yes.
posted by amtho at 1:16 PM on February 24, 2021

Moths are hard to defeat. I've got a bunch of sticky pheromone traps that I periodically renew, but only one thing has made a drastic difference:

Spiders.

Last year I started letting a few respectable medium-sized spiders spin webs in the corners, and not shooing them out.

Moths are drawn to protein fibres (silk, wool, fur, etc.) Guess who spins the finest, freshest protein fibres and sets them out for the moths to find. I had two spiders living by the front door, and the moth problem there went from severe to zero.

Sadly, spiders are short lived, and I don't think mine made it through the winter. But at least now I know they work. I still get a bit spooked by spiders if they're large and close up, but they can mind their own business in the corners and I'll leave them alone.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:08 PM on February 24, 2021 [23 favorites]

I noticed a big difference in moth control after using Trichogrammas. You don’t notice their presence at all, but they target the moth eggs and worked for us as a safe and trouble-free fix.

Also, where I live, at this time of year, putting your woolens in the freezer can just mean hanging them outside!
posted by transient at 2:51 AM on February 25, 2021 [1 favorite]